New video shows shocking moment cargo ship smashes into US oil tanker off UK coast
A new video shows the shocking moment a cargo ship smashed into a US oil tanker.
On Monday (10 March) morning, Solong, a Portuguese flagged cargo ship, smashed into the Stena Immaculate off the coast of the UK.
It has since been revealed by the Solong's owner, Ernst Russ, that the captain is a Russian national and he was arrested in connection with the crash yesterday.
The collision in the North Sea, near to Hull, East Yorkshire, saw both ships burst into flames just before 10am with one of them now extinguished.
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HM Coastguard said 36 people had been rescued and taken safely to shore, while the Russian national captain of Solong is under suspicion of gross negligence manslaughter following reports of a missing crew member.
A search for the missing crew member of the Solong was called off on Monday evening and they are presumed dead.
The recently released clip of the moment the cargo ship crashed into the oil tanker comes from another vessel, which was anchored nearby. The black-and-white footage sees the Solong seeming go directly into the Stena Immaculate.
The US tanker was carrying 220,000 barrels of aviation fuel in 18 containers to be used by its military and was stationary and at anchor when it was struck.
Initially, it was feared the Solong was carrying sodium cyanide, but Russ said this was misreported and that four containers had previously been carrying the chemical.
As Humberside Police confirmed this morning the captain 'remains in our custody', American-based maritime news website gCaptain reported it was told by a US official in the White House that foul play had not been ruled out.
However, UK transport minister Mike Kane told MPs yesterday that something went 'terribly wrong' for the crash to happen, but that there was 'no evidence' of foul play.
Shadow transport minister Jerome Mayhew told the PA news agency: “Where military assets are damaged it is vital that motives are fully investigated to exclude foul play.
“The nationality of the captain of the Solong raises further questions about potential motivation that the Government must now get to the bottom of.”
Port state control (PSC) inspection documents show the Solong failed steering-related safety checks in July 2024, and Irish officials deemed that its 'emergency steering position communications/compass reading' was 'not readable'. The inspection in Dublin highlighted 10 deficiencies.
Other issues raised included 'inadequate' alarms, 'not properly maintained' survival craft and fire doors 'not as required'.
And another PSC inspection by Scottish authorities in October found two deficiencies with Solong, including lifebuoys 'not properly marked'.
The ship was not detained after the inspections in Dublin or Grangemouth and an Ernst Russ spokesman said all of the deficiencies found in 2024 were 'promptly rectified'.
Jess Battison